Optimized energy management and control strategy of photovoltaic/PEM fuel cell/batteries/supercapacitors DC microgrid system

The slow dynamics response of a PEMFC to high-level load variation must be solved. Consequently, it is necessary to integrate the DC microgrid with battery storage banks and ultracapacitors. To guarantee the DC microgrid components: PV array, PEMFC, battery bank, and supercapacitor work effectively; energy management strategies (EMSs) are essential. The EMS distributes the load with the PV array, PEMFC, lithium-ion battery, and supercapacitor considering high efficiency and low H₂ consumption. An effective EMS using a recent Beluga Whale Optimization (BWO) was developed for sharing the load between the components of the DC microgrid. Sliding mode control (SMCS), classical equivalent consumption minimization strategy (ECMS) and other optimization algorithms such as White Shark Optimizer (WSO), Manta ray foraging optimization (MRFO), Harris Hawks Optimizer (HHO), soon eagle search (BES) and Artificial Hummingbird Algorithm (AHA) were considered for comparison with the suggested BWO. The results approved the superiority of the suggested ECMS-based BWO; the hydrogen consumption was reduced by 37.67 %, 46.4 %, 25.5 %, 32.58 %, 12.94 %, 12.1 %, and 9.67 % compared to SMCS, ECMS, WSO, MRFO, HHO, BES, and AHA, respectively. In addition, efficiency increased by 4.4 %, 13.49 %, 5.24 %, 10.51 %, 0.95 %, 4.52 %, and 0.32 % compared to SMCS, ECMS, WSO, MRFO, HHO, BES, and AHA, respectively.